There is hardly any way around them in marketing: personas have become an indispensable tool, especially in strategy. But what does the term actually mean, what is a ‘persona’?
Persona in marketing – definition
‘Persona’ comes from Latin and means “mask”. And that’s what this concept is all about: personas serve as a kind of blueprint to depict companies’ target groups. The target group is characterised very precisely with behavioural traits and preferences based on a fictitious average personality. They are given a face, a history including socio-economic background, a name and various characteristics. They are used to empathise with the respective people. The findings from this are incorporated into all business processes: From product design and online presence to communication. Personas therefore play a particularly important role in marketing.
Persona creation – what you need to bear in mind
Many companies make the mistake of creating their persona based on assumptions or wishful thinking. Instead, the focus should be on quantitative and qualitative methods to discover rather than artificially develop a persona. Personas are particularly well-founded if they are based on real user data. Customers and business partners from the past therefore serve as a model for a target group to be addressed in the future. This has the advantage that the ‘proof of concept’ has already been provided, so to speak. To this end, companies should analyse their CRM systems in detail and filter out the following features, for example:
- Can patterns be recognised in the existing customer base?
- Is the product used particularly often by people of the same gender, ethnicity, origin or position?
- Where is the target group located?
- What are the most successful sales channels?
- How did a contact come about?
- Are there any other anomalies?
The results from the available data can be combined with findings from sociological research. There are numerous research findings on the behaviour of certain demographic or social groups. If clear groupings can be identified on the basis of existing customer data, linking them with information from research is particularly easy.
It is also helpful to collect further data in addition to the available information. This can take the form of surveys, focus groups, social media monitoring or website analytics. Without user research, personas remain just rough assumptions and are hardly suitable for a valid marketing strategy.
Common mistakes when creating a persona
You don’t develop a persona ‘on the side’. There are a number of pitfalls lurking in this process. Only those who manage to avoid these will end up with useful personas for a targeted approach to the target group.
- Assumption instead of knowledge: Data and information about the target group are the foundation for an efficient and effective marketing set-up. This principle also applies to persona creation. Without a thorough evaluation of existing data, personas remain mere assumptions and the target group approach becomes a lottery.
- Too many personas: In most cases, there is more than one persona for a product or service. No wonder: after all, there are usually several target groups with different needs to be addressed by the brand. However, having too many personas dilutes the actual idea behind this method: instead of clarity and structure, too many parallel, possibly mutually exclusive personas tend to cause confusion and result in unclear brand positioning.
- Too generalised: The purpose of a persona is to obtain as precise a picture as possible of a part of the target group. If the personas are only very roughly defined, meaningful targeting based on the target group blueprint is hardly possible.
- Described in too much detail: Personas must not be kept too general, but the other extreme also reduces their practical use. The more detailed a persona is described, the clearer the associated target group is – at the same time, this shrinks with every detail. It is important to find the right balance here and leave out unimportant details for the persona description.
Criticism of marketing personas
The concept of personas in marketing is not uncontroversial. Frequent criticism of the concept is that it promotes clichéd thinking. This criticism is justified to the extent that there are actually companies that think in terms of pigeonholes when creating personas, into which every customer should ideally be categorised. For this reason, it is important to ensure that there is no room for assumptions and wishful thinking when defining personas. Ideally, personas should be measurable and comprehensible. The categorisation must therefore not be arbitrary, but must be based on available data and findings.
Conclusion: Personas are a useful tool in marketing
Personas provide a precise picture of the target group to be addressed and are therefore a useful and proven tool for reaching the relevant users. Persona creation is a lengthy process that should not be underestimated. Data on existing customers helps to define personas as objectively as possible. The defined personas are by no means set in stone. As a target group is constantly changing, the ‘target group patterns’ created should also be scrutinised again and again over time and adjusted if necessary. Constant monitoring of tracked data makes it possible to always have an up-to-date picture of existing and future customers.
